Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: Andrea
Date: 21 Oct 98 - 09:54 AM

My name is Andrea and I write from Torino an industrial city in the NW part of Italy.

Some news about my city, usually unknown by international people.

Torino was the capital of Italy when the country got united (1861). Than the capital mooved in Florence (just for a cupple of years) and then definetly in Rome.

It is a beautiful city of about one million inhabitants, well known to be the HQ of FIAT. The historical center of Torino is very nice and indeed it echoes the grace of an ancient capital.

I discovered this forum 'cos someone suggested me to try to find out here someone to help me in my search of a Lyric of a song by John Renbourn (please have a look on my thread).

Well nicce to meet you and excuse me for my terrible english. Ciao to everyone. Andrea

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: Ritchie
Date: 21 Oct 98 - 09:39 AM

Ritchie thanks; it was Alistar Anderson!

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: STEPHEN MALONE
Date: 21 Oct 98 - 01:41 AM

Hi All, I've been reading your comments and I really envy those of you that are living in a warm sunny climate. I live in the south of Ireland a place called Blarney and its been raining nonstop all day, its coming down by the bucket full. The one great advantage with bad weather is its a great excuse to go to the local pub in Blarney village for the Trad session tonight.

Regards, Stephen.

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: Jerry Friedman
Date: 20 Oct 98 - 11:21 PM

Orale from El Norte--northern New Mexico, that is, which for our overseas friends is south of most of the U.S. I live in Española, a town of about 8000 people on the Rio Grande between Santa Fe and Taos. The altitude is about 5600 ft (1710 m), and I thought I'd have to fight out the Mudcat altitude title with Jon, but I'll bet Rex has us all beat.

Española celebrated its 400th anniversary this year (quibblers point out that the first Spanish settlement was actually not in the town limits, and that the modern town was founded by the DRG&W (I think) railroad in the 1800s), so this area was the second settled in North America. The local Hispanic folk and pop tradition is different from, but influenced by, the traditions of Mexico and the Anglo U.S. ('Fraid "Anglo" here includes the Irish as well as Jewish Americans like me.) A colleague and one of his students were just speaking in Spanish outside my office. Both are musicians, and a recent highlight of my community-college teaching job was listening to them jam when they should have been doing an electronics lab.

Of course the Native American traditions here are still going too.

I'm 37. I "grew up" in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio, went to college in Princeton (where I overlapped with Susan but didn't know her) and grad school in Urbana, Illinois in physics, and then came out here. I enjoy the mountains, wildlife, and low pollution--BUT DON'T MOVE HERE!

A rare overcast and rainy day. We have four seasons--spring is warm, windy, and dry; summer is hot, starts dry and ends wet; fall is dry and beautiful; and winter sometimes cold and sub-zero (Fahrenheit). But cool rainy days can occur in any season, and so can warm sunny days--in every month of the year, there's been a day when I didn't need a shirt to work in the garden.

No wife, no kids, no pets, no musical performances (except that when I'm visiting my mother in Cleveland I pick out folk and classical tunes on her piano and her guitar). I learn a lot from you folks, and occasionally I get to share what I fondly believe is not useless knowledge.

I'd list my non-Net hobbies, but lately I seem to spend most of my time supervising the construction of our college's solar car.

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: Big Mick
Date: 20 Oct 98 - 10:31 PM

Martin, thanks for the lovely thread. While most of the emmigrants in my family came from Galway, my grandmother lived in Athlone. I loved your comments.

Joe T., I absolutely loved your story. What a great part of our community you are.

Keep 'em coming folks. I can't tell you when I have enjoyed a thread more.

Slan go foill,

Mick

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: Craig
Date: 20 Oct 98 - 09:17 PM

Hay Dudes! It appears to me that I may be the lone Southern Californian. What a bummer. I would sure like to be able to meet all of you. As far as I can tell there aren't to many folk music gatherings in this area. Which is about fourty miles north of San Diego. The Padres and Yankees have just started game three of the World Series. GO PADS. We are having a mild santa ana right now so the weather is quite nice. I attend church here and sing in the choir. In the past few months a group of us at the church have been gathering in the parish hall to sing and listen to folk songs. It'd be nice if we could get something going here. I also sing bass in a group we have here called The San Luis Rey Chorale. We sing in the Mission San Luis Rey a lot, hence the name. We're an ecumenical group and we don't care what you believe in. This season we're performing (along with other music) Malcolm Dalglish's "Star in the East" and it would be great if we could fine someone who plays the Hammer Dulcimer in this area.

Thanks to all of you for being here.Craig

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: Joe Theriault
Date: 20 Oct 98 - 09:05 PM

I have been reading the cat for 9 months ,not because I am into folk music,but because you are all such interesting people I am learning so much by reading your comments .I am even learning how to run this computor. I do play the diatonic accordian .The band is called The Raaticoons..We play Scandinavian dance music. My introduction to music was via a crystal set with head phones back in the 30s. I paid the stagering sum of 50cents for a Honner hormonica and leared how to play it within a week. Shipped out of Portland Me .,where I wa raised ,In 1942 .I was dragging a 120 bass acordion. Music was always a big part of my life,but marriage children and the job put it all on the back burner.But then I retired. I was 60.Played the Bass in a bluegras band .Started to learn the button box at 65 and I have been squeezing ever since.And making money .I call it ." my new carrer" The weather here in the state of Maine Has been unusualy warm .Weather this warm this late in the season makes us Maniacs ,nervous. Peace to you all Joe.

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: Joe Offer
Date: 20 Oct 98 - 07:45 PM

Hey, Seed, did you notice how Jon W. doesn't include us Californians in the "American West"? He may be right - Californians sure don't fit the "Western" image most people have.
-Joe Offer, transplanted Midwesterner-

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: Rex Rideout
Date: 20 Oct 98 - 06:55 PM

To help fill out the western U.S. I'm sort of on the southern slope of Mt. Evans west of Denver in Colorado. I play music for fur trade, CW (US) and turn of the century (1900) historic doins. Fiddle and mandolin mostly. My two boys like to play the fiddle too somewhat. I wonder if Doug from Colorado Springs is the one I know. I also play bluegrass and even some folksongs if someone holds me to it. Rex

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: Alice
Date: 20 Oct 98 - 03:46 PM

Dan (Liam's Brother) I would send you a message through the personal page, but my computer freezes whenever I try to do that. Please start a new thread and tell us more about Joe Heaney and the others. I have one tape of Joe Heaney, and I wish I had only known while he was alive that he was in Seattle, so I could have gone there for a workshop with him. Thanks.

alice in montana

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: Martin Ryan
Date: 20 Oct 98 - 03:38 PM

Me? I'm just another ageing Paddy cursed with a good memory. When I was very young, I learned songs from my grandfather and, apparently, drove people demented by singing myself to sleep!In a family with six kids,that wasn't a great idea - even if I was the first born.

As a teenager, growing up in Dublin, I lost all interest in traditional song and became addicted to modern jazz and then Baroque music. Eventually I moved to Athlone in the Irish midlands, where I've been living ever since. Jazz being fairly scarce here at the time (and since!), I started hanging around the local folk club and suddenly got interested in singing again. Been singing and collecting songs ever since.

Athlone is a small town smack in the middle of Ireland with a large (by Irish standards!) lake just to the north. Since I love sailing, its nice I know live within five minutes of the yacht club, in a quiet, beautiful area. We don't sail for the winter - had our last race at the weekend, so its hibernation time again. Actually, much of my leisure time in winter is spent birdwatching by day and singing by night.

Perversely enough, I have lately been listening to jazz again - mainly because, being separated from my wife and with my children grown up, I got rid of the TV and play music instead. Partly as a result of this reawakening, I've ended up presenting a music programme on a local radio station (in Dublin) - in Gaelic.

I don't play an instrument - although my partner (a fiddler and singer) is dropping hints about taking up the concertina! Meanwhile there's still lots of songs out there to be learnt. There's a local Singer Circle (bit like Frank McGraths Nenagh group) and we're about to bring out a CD, on which I sing a track. Its all go, as we say.

Weather? Don't ask!

Regards

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: FIDDLER MIKE
Date: 20 Oct 98 - 02:23 PM

Hi from Appalacia My name is Mike Thieken. Don't try to pronounce it unless you know German; Else I will think you're a salesperson. Which is OK if you'r on the Cat.(The hi is silent)

I'm new to the Mudcat (around April) but it's at the top of my bookmarks. I live in southeast Ohio, just inside the boundries of Appalacia. Spent my childhood on a small farm near the Ohio River. One of ten children of a great fiddle player who would let me use his fiddle when I was 6 years old. I doubt I'll ever be as good as him and will probably never make grocery money with my talent, but it's still my first love. Also play Guitar and Mando.

We don't wory about the weather in Ohio cause it will change by tomorrow. Twas sunny and 78 Sunday, the forcast is for high of 40 and snow Thursday. "The leaves are turning and falling in showers of gold."

After spending most of my growing years playing rythem guitar for my Dad. I now play and sing with a wonderfull group "Home Remedy", which as we put it, "are dedicated to the music that celebrates the Joys and Trials of living in Appalacia".

Thanks for being there! Mike T.

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: Mo
Date: 20 Oct 98 - 01:58 PM

Another Scot here, Glaswegian born and now living, though in my childhood I lived south of the border (that's England not Mexico-way - sorry Roy!). Though if I wasn't Scottish, I would want to be Nova-Scotian as I have a real fondness for the place.

I play the tin whistle appallingly, but don't let the protests of my neighbours stop me, and occasionally, when in the mood, sing. Like so many others, Mudcat has been a revelation to me! Long may it continue! Cheers, Mo

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: Barbara Shaw
Date: 20 Oct 98 - 12:22 PM

DW, my musical progression was actually more like: (Rock era) Elvis, Fats Domino, Jimmie Bowen, Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, Beatles, Stones, Animals, Canned Heat, Cream, Buffalo Springfield, Crosby Stills & Nash, Bonnie Raitt, Little Feat. (Never heard of Clean Living until I married the bass player). (Country & Folk period) Willie Nelson, Moe Bandy, Hank Locklin, Amazing Rhythm Aces, Emmy Lou Harris (Bluegrass & Traditional) Wynn Faye (bless his soul, the one who started many New Englanders down the bluegrass path) and the Field Pickers, Bill Monroe, Ralph Stanley, Nashville Bluegrass Band, Del McCoury, Stecher & Brislin, Norman Blake, etc.

I was never a "folkie," and I'm primarily a bluegrasser now, altho I'm currently president (in what was a hotly uncontested race) of a mostly classical music group.

Phil, I don't remember ever going to a house hoot in North Branford, and I thought I'd been to almost all of them for the past hundred years. Lately, they alternate between the Greens and the Shaws. If you left CT in '91, that was before I started playing guitar or fiddle. I used to go to all the hoots and sink into a trance from lack of motion during the "dreary groaners." Nowadays, Frank and I are the ones doing bluegrass duets. The last I heard, Kate McDonnell (GREAT singer-songwriter) was in Maine, after having lived awhile in Washington state. Robert's new wife (Anne) does a folk show on WNHU on Saturdays. Come back and visit sometime!

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: folk1234
Date: 20 Oct 98 - 11:51 AM

What a great thread weaving through our community to form a wonderfully colorful moasic of people, time, place, and song. My real name is Phil Norton. I came out of the closet (car & shower) in '89 to begin to publicly enjoy and share folk music with others thanks to the support and encouragement of Robt & Susan Kilheffer and Kate McDonald of the Branfrod/New Have, CT area. Barbara Shaw, I attended a couple of house hoots at Dave Green's and we hosted one in North Branford. I don't know if I ever met you, but I hope to do so in the future. I fit the "mudcat mold" pretty well. I'm twice retired (U.S. Marine Infantry Officer, and United Technologies Engineering Manager). We left CT in '91 for Oklahoma, where I now work for OK State Univ in an engineering outreach program assisting small rural manufacturers employ modern engineering and business practices. I've been to Pinewoods 2x, Swanannowa, Augusta, and Winfield 3x; Pinewoods is my favorite and I hope to go again in '99. We have a very active folk music club, the Oklahoma City Traditional Music Association, click here . Please stop by and share a song with us.

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: Liam's Brother
Date: 20 Oct 98 - 10:47 AM

Greetings from the heart of New York City where the weather today is probably the best it will be until next May.

I was born in the Midlands of England. My mother is from Co. Kerry and my father was half-Irish. I was raised in England, Ireland, Toronto and New York. We always had folk songs and other Irish national music in our home. My father had a few traditional songs from his grandfather, Patrick McKay, who came from near the far-famed Spancil Hill crossroads in Co. Clare. My grand-uncle, Lot McKay, was an NCO on HMS Victory.

It was not until until 1961 when I returned to NYC from a stint in an English boarding school that I first considered what made the folk songs different from any others. My older brother, Liam, introduced me to a copy of a little 10-inch Robin Hall & Jimmy MacGregor recording of songs from Gavin Greig's "Last Leaves of the Traditional Ballads." It was a revelation.

I sang at South Street Seaport and The Irish Arts Center in the early 1970's. I met Joe Heaney among other fine singers. Later, Margaret Barry stayed with me for 4 or 5 months. I never learned any of Margaret's songs but I learned a lot about life! Some of my favorite singers: Dominic Behan, Ewan MacColl, Peter Bellamy, Frank Harte, Almeda Riddle, Len Graham and Dan McGonagle. I play guitar and the bodhran.

I formed The Flying Cloud with the Co. Longford fiddler Paddy Reynolds and Brian Brooks (later of The House Band) in 1975. We had a number of personnel changes over 3 our years and recorded an LP in 1977. Brian and I started the folk club at The Eagle Tavern and I ran it for 10 years; it continues at The Blarney Star under Don Meade. In the early '80s, I put together a folk song book, "A Bonnie Bunch of Roses," for Oak.

Music became an occupational hazard and I stopped singing altogether for 14 years. Brian Conway, the great All-Ireland champion fiddler, and some of my old buddies from South Street Seaport got me singing again in 1996. That same year, I resurrected some old master tapes which were for an LP I started in 1982 with Lou Killen, Mick Moloney, Andy O'Brien, Billy McComiskey and Brendan Mulvihill. It's been finished as "Irish Ballads & Songs of the Sea" and it will be issued as a Folk-Legacy CD sometime next month. It has some great old standards on it and some totally unknown songs too. William Main Doerflinger very kindly helped me write the notes.

In August, I retired after 30 years in the airline business. I'm trying to avoid taking another full-time job. I've been doing Irish sessions around NYC with Brian Conway and some concerts too. A very talented but totally unknown Irish-American singer, Bob Conroy, and I are working on another theme CD and have put together a touring repetoire. We'll be at the Nomad Festival in CT in a few weeks and we're going to San Francisco, Ireland and England next year.

My "Rip Van Winkle" experience causes me astonishment every day. One of the most pleasant surprises has been DT. What a real treat!

All the best, Dan

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: Ritchie
Date: 20 Oct 98 - 08:47 AM

Rincon Roy, Alistar Anderson is a major exponent of the concertina up here in Northumberland , he was i think a member of the 'High Level Ranters'and he is also well known for his pipe playing you should also check out Kathryn Tickell if you like the sound of the Nortumbrian pipes.

Hope I'm not messing the thread up...sorry.

love and happiness

Ritchie

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: Rincon Roy
Date: 20 Oct 98 - 08:19 AM

Mudcat's one of my favorite places. Even post now and then when the spirit moves me, though can't seem to use the same name more than twice; just too goofy!

Mornings here right now seem pretty cool & chilly to me which would amaze you cold climate folks. Shirt sleeves and hat at noon to keep clear of the sun. Big mountain to the north of me has been visual companion all my life.

So where am I? Tucson,in USA's southwest near border with Mexico. Home of both the International Mariachi Festival & the Tucson Friends of Traditional Music: which makes for a strange cross-cultural milieu...

A friend gave his homemade mountain-style banjo 10 or so years ago & so I mess around on that for pure pleasure; strickly amateur. Also, been playing Eb alto horn in old-time brass band: dress up in 1878 cavalry outfit & play pop music of the 19th century: polkas, quicksteps, schotiches, galops, and whole raft of great old tunes no one has heard in 100 years. (blue wool uniform in July on the desert is "an experience.")

Celtic & folk types pass through every so often; have heard great concerts here, believe it or not. Especially one years ago when most beautiful sounds I ever heard came popping out of the "small pipes" (Northumberland style?) Can't remember the performer, mostly played concertina; any idea who?

Too bad don't have too many spanish speakers reading the forum; a lot of fun music has been made south of the border not far from Tucson...

[e-mail]

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: Bill - Scotland
Date: 20 Oct 98 - 04:42 AM

Great thread!!!! Just to let you know that there are "Jocks" out here. I live in Aberdeenshire in the North east of Scotland. I'm actually writing this from an oil rig in the middle of the North Sea and the weather today is nice and bright if a bit cold and windy.
I've been playing guitar for more than twenty years now and have almost reached the novice stage. Mostly folk and traditional music, I'm enjoying playing and singing now more than ever. I write my own songs, often in the Doric language of the area and have started performing them at our folk club and in some of the gigs.
I also play the bodhran, harmonica and have just taken up learning the fiddle.
Greetings to all the Mudcatters from the Wild North Sea.!!
Bill

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: Ferrit
Date: 20 Oct 98 - 03:52 AM

Ah well, suppose I'd better contribute - just to show that there are a few more Brits lurking around the cafe.

I live in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, and am yorkshire born and bred! I live in a house full of 'young professionals' - their belongings and my three ferrets - McBeth, McDuff and Shredder (Shrednivashta).

It was raining when I walked into work (Sheffield Hallam University) - but the again, it often does in Sheffield!

I can't play any instrument, and consistently make up for lack of tunefullness in my singing with shear volume, but I spend some of my free time looking for songs to compile into an ever increasing collection, for fellow tuneless Mediaeval re-enactors to murder around the campfire, once all the public have left! Folk, modern - you name it, it's in - including various parodies (Anthem of the Ancient Britons - the song about Woad, to the tune of 'Men of Harlech' - is one fine example!).

Well, better go and earn my crust - look forwards to seeing who else is out there,

TTFN

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: Helen
Date: 20 Oct 98 - 12:23 AM

Ritchie,

I thought you were talking about my Newcastle, on the east coast of Australia. The description fits with some name changes only - except for references to cold weather - ours is a temperate climate and it doesn't get too hot or too cold here at all.

"The thing about the [Hunter Valley in New South Wales] is that it has so much to offer in as much as it's so near both the country and the coast and Newcastle is a 'buzzing' city... but it's cold and getting colder [no, that's not my Newcastle - just coming into summer now, anyway]...fortunately the people,[......] are generally very warm hearted with a great sense of humour."

Helen

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: Big Mick
Date: 19 Oct 98 - 10:20 PM

Jon,

Seven daughters??????? And a wife???? I will never again whine about 3 daughters and 2 female cats!! My friend, I want to buy you copious amounts of Guinness sometime, of course I will drink with you, but only to keep you company. :-)) After we are done, you should throw yourself in front of a train to avoid the wedding bills. **grin**

All the best, Mick

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: The Shambles
Date: 19 Oct 98 - 07:59 PM

Talking of commercial jingles I have just seen one for 'The Sisters of Murphy's'!

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: bassen
Date: 19 Oct 98 - 06:54 PM

Sorry this has acquired epic proportions, I'll never go on at such length again, I swear. Up here on the northwest shoulder of Norway, the low pressure centers have started marching in off the North Atlantic, a sure sign of ensuing winter. The last few days have seen sou'westerly gales slowly abating with the temperature dipping down to about +4 Celsius - the norwegian word for weather report "værvarsel" directly translated means "weather warning" which pretty much sums it all up. Actually I love it, having been raised in the bland weather pablum of sunny southern california.

I'm new to the Mudcat, only been hanging out for a month or two, but music has always been a part of my life. I was born in East LA , grew up various places in So.Cal. My parents sang - old songs and hymns from Norway, my mother played piano, my father played mandolin. Riding in the car (which we seemed to do every weekend, for hours) my sister and I would sing and sing and sing - when we ran out of songs we'd sing theme songs from TV series and then commercial jingles, anything with a melody - anyone else remember the jingle for Eastside Old Tap Lager Beer...?

My interest in folk music came via my sister, 5 years older than me. The Kingston Trio, yeah, but for me more than anything else, the Chad Mitchell Trio and Joan Baez. I got a mandolin for Christmas when I was 14 and learned Barbara Allen from a book. My sister had a 20$ Tijuana guitar, which I quickly took over. I never got into playing rock'n'roll, only folk music, old timey music, whatever. But I love all music, the first two albums I ever bought were the Beach Boys and Leadbelly, NOBODY else in my high school thought Huddie Leadbetter was cool in 1964, I guarantee. The real turning point came after hearing Flatt and Scruggs on the radio - that was music!

I moved to Norway in 1966. Another expat there taught me the fundamentals of ragtime guitar and introduced me to jugband music which has remained a favorite. I spent part of the 70's in France - during the big Celtic revival, Allan Stivell etc. Lots of Fest Noz and pancakes in Montparnasse. Bought a bombarde and learned the fundamentals, spent a summer hitching around the west coast of Ireland and learned a little tin whistle, acquired a reverential admiration for uillean pipes which has never abated.

A certain veneer of responsible adult attitude surfaced during the 80's, I acquired a degree in ethnology and eventually a family. I'm now director of the regional museum in Kristiansund, just south of Trondheim (NOT Kristiansand, another place altogether). I respect and enjoy norwegian folk and traditional music, but my soul does not respond the same way it does to "Rocky road to Dublin" "Reuben James" or "Boodle Am Rag". After about 10 years of dustgathering, I've dragged out guitar, banjo and mandolin and have started playing for my sons and anyone else who'll listen. I never stopped singing.

"Little girls have pretty curls but I like Oreo..."

bassen

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: Jon W.
Date: 19 Oct 98 - 06:32 PM

Not many of us from the American West - Doug in Colorado, Alice in Montana, and me, I'm Jon in Utah. I got into folk music through the blues - starting with blues/rock and working back to the originals like Blind Willie McTell. Then a friend at work introduced me to Irish music through the recordings of Planxty and others. From there I have started listening to other types of folk a little also. I used to play bass guitar, picked up six-string when I got into acoustic blues, later took up tin whistle enough to play the melodies but not the twiddly bits (as Alison calls them) and still later my current obsession, banjo. I play 5-string in a melodic finger oriented style based on a book by Ken Perlman that features mostly Irish & New England fiddle tunes. I have performed very rarely and only in local neighborhood talent show type of things, where I usually do so poorly I embarrass myself. But I keep trying.

I have a wife and seven daughters ages 15 down to 2. Most have more musical talent than I. My wife has sung with choirs and symphonies and majored in music. The weather here (Salt Lake City area) has been nice for a few days, getting cold at nights but fairly warm during the days. The leaves are turning and falling.

I've been visiting the Mudcat almost daily for over a year. Does that qualify as addiction?

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: Bob Landry
Date: 19 Oct 98 - 05:42 PM

I was born and raised in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia and, after spending 12 years in Ottawa and Halifax, settled in St. Albert, Alberta in 1980. We're near to Edmonton, approximately 400 miles north of the US (Montana) border.

My father played his fiddle in the kitchen every Sunday and, as a result, down-east and Cape Breton fiddle music courses through my veins. I learned to accompany him on piano but have given that up completely since one of my pinky fingers was destroyed during a baseball game with a bunch of crazed Boy Scouts.

I now play guitar and howl along with it every chance I get. My tastes are varied ... blues, bluegrass, folk, Celtic, 50's and 60' rock and roll. I usually play rhythm guitar (note - my dictionary defines strumming as "to play the guitar badly") and I try to get together with different people at least once a week for an informal session, usually in somebody's basement. One of my priorities is to play with better musicians than I am ... that's so that this old dog can continue to learn new tricks. These days, I'm concentrating on learning to flat-pick fiddle tunes on the guitar and developing a small repertoire of blues leads. I have never played for money but have played in front of audiences on a number of occasions.

I guess I'm a typical Mudcatter ... a 51 year-old accountant with two boys (18 and 25.) The 18-year-old plays electric & accoustic guitar and sings - he prefers Christian music. The 25-year-old, who will return in a few weeks from a two-year sojourn working in pubs in England (Newcastle and Bristol), wants to play guitar ... he may become more dedicated once he hears what his younger brother accomplished during his absence.

My house is about a five-minute walk from Sheye's who is also an avid Mudcatter ... which reminds me ... it's been much too long, Sheye. I'll call you in a few days about an upcoming jam. The weather here today is sunny and in the low teens (celsius). The leaves are falling down. As opposed to eastern Canada and the US, they're mostly brown and yellow; no reds and golds. The snow we had 10 days ago has long since disappeared but we're bracing for winter.

Bob

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: Hank
Date: 19 Oct 98 - 05:02 PM

Well, I'm from Minnesota, and concequently I refuse to discuss the weather. (for those who havn't been to MN in the last five years, the media has taken to 50% weather on all outlets. I can't belive anyone would belive them, they aren't even right when they tell me what I'd see if I looked out the window now more then half the time)

Minnesota is beatiful this time of the year. Just yesterday a flock of sky carp (canadian geese) flew right over our home at treetop level. Not to mention the trees, lakes and rivers.

As for music, people prefer it when I sing tenor (so miles away). Accually when I hit the right notes I have a great tenor voice, but I don't often hit the notes I want. I'm getting better though. I alway play a little keyboard, problem is the only keyboard I have to play is cheep enough that I out play it, and I'm a novice. So I'm thinking about taking up mandolin or something. Any suggestions?

Minnesota was mostly settled by germans, but a signficant number of swedish and norwigions settled here too. That would be fine, but the sweeds and norvigians mostly settled in the same remote village up north. If you know the sweds and norwigians, you can imangine how a norgian girl is gonna feel when she realsies that there is only one elliagble guy her age around, and he is swedish. It made for some interesting marriages, and the results have shaped our culture significantly.

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: Alice
Date: 19 Oct 98 - 04:10 PM

oh, yes... the autoharp! I forgot that one, but Bill D's message reminded me. It is the one instrument I have taken to our old-time session here to play and sing The Cuckoo and Katy Dear.

alice in montana

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: Alice
Date: 19 Oct 98 - 03:20 PM

Hi, everyone, I had to go to Denver last week, so I missed the start of this thread. Got back at Midnight, and I'm too exhausted to re-type a bio, and decided to copy and paste part of my old one from "Why we gravitate to Mudcat".

Since we are dropping our virtual masks, I can tell you that my full name is Alice Colleen Flynn. I was born in Great Falls, Montana on Dec. 20, 1951, raised in Helena, and have lived in Bozeman since 1970.(Photo at http://www.mcn.net/~acflynn/Alice.html ). Back in 1976 I travelled from Montana to Central America and back in a 1949 Buick, and have a love of El Salvador, where I lived for a couple of months. I like most kinds of music. Irish and American folk music was my early family influence. We wore the grooves off the Clancy Brothers/Tommy Makem records. When I worked at the college FM radio station as a student in the early 70's, I would spin alot of blues, rock, and an eclectic mix of records. Since I have been taking classical voice lessons for the last few years, I developed a taste for singing and listening to Opera. I love to sing anything... but my main repertoire is Irish and Scottish ballads and other folksongs. I studied piano through my childhood, and now have a collection of instruments... guitar, harmonium, lute harp, bodhran, as well as whistles (that I still need to learn) and my grandfather's old violin. My son plays violin, piano, and harmonium, and seems to have a talent to pick up any instrument and play it. I have dabbled in classes of Polynesian dance, flamenco, tango... you can see I like lots of cross-cultural musical/dance styles.

I am a professional illustrator and graphic artist. My website

www.mcn.net/~acflynn/

has more information about me, my folk instruments, singing and our Irish session here, and is illustrated by some of my nature paintings that were created for my clients who manufacture tee-shirts for the tourist souvenir market.

Being the sole support of myself and my 11 year old son, I don't have the time I would like to spend on practicing and performing music. My degree is in fine art, and I have been a professional artist for so long that I am burned out on it... I wish I could just make music and get away from the tedium of the drawing board!

My grandfather was born in County Leitrim, Ireland and came with his parents and brothers and sisters to Tintah, Minnesota, when he was a teenager. They left the wet, poor farm behind in Ireland and started over in the US on a homestead in 1881. They spoke both gaelic and English, but unfortunately, gaelic was not passed on to us. My dad came to Montana in 1916, when he was 14, to work on the railroad along with his older brothers and relatives. My mother was raised on a homestead in Eastern Montana, and was a photographer in the 30's and 40's. My parents, with one of my aunts, were killed in a car accident in 1979. My son and I are pretty much alone in the world, but have a few good friends. We are happy as a family of two.

Montana is a beautiful place to live, 90's in the summer, and down to -20 (f) or lower in the winter. The state is sparsely populated, and is one of the lowest in income. I make money consulting for clients in more prosperous parts of the US. The internet has made it even easier to work from my home.

The Mudcat has been a great way for me to beat the isolation of Montana and the loss of my family. I have met Anne Cooke here, who teaches Gaelic and answered my thread on sean-nos, as well as Alison, who emailed to my son when he broke his leg last spring, (and thanks all of you, who emailed to him with messages) and many others who have contacted me with lyrics and other messages about music. The Mudcat forum has been a great asset. I love you all...

Alice Flynn in Montana

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: malena
Date: 19 Oct 98 - 03:02 PM

Imagine everyone from this thread would meet with their instruments and we have a big session... proudly presenting the Mudcat-Big-Band, featuring lots of beginners fiddlers, heaps of 6- and 12-string guitars and tons of bodhrans! I´d just love it!

Susan-Marie, they say the right age for starting violin is about five or six, but it sure is never to early to let her fiddle around...

Ritchie... it´s NEVER too late!!!

Graeme, nice to meet you here, now I know a little bit who you are, let me get you a beer (but a cold one!)

PS: Every new New Englander entering this thread has to pay a donation to the Cafe!

Love you all,

Daniel

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: Bill D
Date: 19 Oct 98 - 01:49 PM

I started my folk career in Wichita, Kansas in about 1961-2, and largely avoided the 'pop folk' of those days...(due to one or two people who knew about 'trad')...moved to Washington DC area in 1977 and immersed myself in the FSGW (http://www.fsgw.org/) I am now in Maryland, north of Washington DC. I started playing recorder to avoid singing, but soon took up Autoharp, and a little bit of dulcimer and decided to sing anyway.. :-)) I will never be classed as a serious musician, but I love the company and the people.

(Roger...that WAS Ferrara playing "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" on a Zither at the Getaway gospel songs..she is my wife..)

Jon Bartlett..saw you about 1977 or so at the National Folk Festival near DC ..you did a wonderful parody of "Wraggle Taggle Gypsies" called "The Hippies & the Beatniks-O"... and other great songs...plus an impropteau version of "Thais" with Jon Eberhart under the stands...stopping Helen Schneyer in her tracks!!...It's neat to see you amoung us here at the 'Cat..

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: Joe Offer
Date: 19 Oct 98 - 01:06 PM

You're from South Philly, Murray? Gee, all this time I thought you were the quintessential Australian.
Say, Aldus, are you close enough to Halifax that you could drop by the Public Archives of Nova Scotia and post a message in the Canadiana thread about the Helen Creighton Collection?
Andreas, when you're counting Germans, don't forget Wolfgang and Susanne (and Malena, and maybe one or two others) - Germany is fairly well represented, and we are starting to get others from the European Continent in addition to our old-timer Ezio from Italy. We even have a sometime visitor from Russia, and at least one "regular" from Japan. Nobody from Africa or South America that I can think of, though.
Susan-Marie, there may come a time when Max has to clean out the Forum and delete or archive older messages, but we currently have access to every message that has been posted in the Forum since it started 1 October 1997 - just do a Forum Search, and you can come back to this thread any time you like.
Click here for a similar thread that Alice resurrected from a couple of years ago. Click here for yet another thread Alice found. Click here for a thread resurrected by Barbara Shaw, who has a memory almost as long as Alice's.
You will note that even way back in 1997, Bill D. was needling me for my interest in mere pop music. Thanks to him and others, my tastes may have improved.... Then again, maybe my taste hasn't improved, but maybe Bill D. has learned to tolerate me.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: MMario
Date: 19 Oct 98 - 12:39 PM

another Cape Codder - (Sandwich) but transplanted to Finger Lakes region of New York. Don't play any insturments, but have recently joined with some friends and we sing at every available oppurtunity. something we all find we miss from our mispent youths, and that seems to be missing in the lives of many youngsters today

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: Earl
Date: 19 Oct 98 - 10:08 AM

I live in Essex MA. which is somewhere between DWDitty and Barry Finn. I play guitar, mandolin and harmonica and I have recently become an adequate concertina player. My wife and I play as a duo, she plays standup bass, washtub bass and jug. We do blues, ragtime, jugband, oldtime country; about 30% originals. We have a twelve year old son who is beginning to learn guitar. We are also part of an acoustic band called Cheap Champagne which changes personnel and repertoire quite frequently.

Every year we organize the Essex Music Festival, featuring acoustic musicians from the Cape Ann area, north of Boston. This year we had folk, bluegrass, blues, oldtime country, maritime, Celtic harp, and storytelling, and a couple of acts that defy description.

The weather here today is postcard beautiful after about a solid week of rain.

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From:
Date: 19 Oct 98 - 09:23 AM

Hi; This is a great thread. I see only one other Nova Scotian.. an Inlander from Springhill..ha.ha.. It is great to see where everyone is...pretty geographically eclectic group. This is a great time for folk music in Nova Scotia.. it has always been here of course, but it seems that lately the rest of the world is sitting up and taking notice. I don't think that many other places in North America has produced such great musicians over the years.Now at last they are being recognized. Right now the Celtic Colours Festival is on and the lineup is wonderful. Too bad you couldn't all be here to see it..some good eh ? Aldus M.

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From:
Date: 19 Oct 98 - 09:00 AM

My name is Murray Adelman. I was born in South Phila and lived in London (Putney, to the initiated) for a few years and then moved to Sydney where I live at present (and in the future too I imagine.) I will be 59 in a few days. I came here to teach at Macquarie University and did so for 25 years. I retired this year; but I continue to do research.

I played recorders and flute for many years. In the 60s, my wife and I built a clavichord and that was quiet enough for me to have the courage to learn the keyboard which I did. The funny thing is that I always liked to listen to blues and other folk music; but I always played classical.

About a year ago I found myself humming John Hurt's "Louis Collins". I couldn't remember who wrote it or who sang it and I asked a folknick friend of mine who told me about this database called the DT or something. So I discovered mudcat.

In the 60s I was too intimidated by Hurt's playing to try to learn what seemed to be such intricate guitar music. Now the "father William" phenomenon took over and I decided last year to buy a guitar and learn to play it--and I did! I can actually play "Louis Collins" at about half tempo. I have "Let the Mermaids Flirt With Me" just about up to tempo and I have started playing some bottleneck pieces.

Kicky, My mother-in-law grew up in a farm right outside of Muscatine. She lives in Iowa City now. I have been on the farm when her brother and sister still ran it.

Anne, in what part of Denmark do you live? I have spent a lot of time in Aarhus. In fact I wound up in a hospital there for three weeks once where I learned to speak a little Danish (and to bake rye bread). I haven't been there in over five years and I am sure I would have trouble understanding the language now.

Graeme: Did you say "Aargh" because you knew some idiot would ask you why both of your daughters are balding?

Oh yes, as I am posting one day later than Alison, I can say that we are having a cool rainy day. The hot weather she mentioned started some bush fires and I was very happy to see this rain.

For the third time in my life, I am trying to learn to play the harmonica. This time it might take, because a few days ago I suceeded in bending from A to A-flat on my Key of C Blues harp. I find it really different from all other instruments I play because there is no finger dexterity involved.

Murray

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: Susan-Marie
Date: 19 Oct 98 - 08:53 AM

Greetings from another New Englander (North Falmouth, Cape Cod, Massachusetts) who's currently living in Maryland just outside Washington D.C. Like DWitty, I often wish I were back in the land of scrub oak and winter beaches, but my work (developing national habitat conservation policy for the National Marine Fisheries Service) doesn't lend itself to small New England towns. I've been thinking about a career change, though.....

I've been singing my whole life, but discovering Celtic music has given me a renewed passion for music. I'd give my right arm to be an accomplished fiddler like Maired ni Mhaonaigh, but singing is what I seem to have a talent for, so I sing every chance I get (mostly our UU church and coffeehouse). I'd like to sing for larger audiences someday, but I'm still prone to stage fright, so I'm slowly feeling my way along.

I have a 3-year old daughter named Kiera (I know, that's not the traditional spelling, but we thought it would easier for teachers to pronounce) who loves to dance to fiddle music and play with my younger sister's violin, so I'm wondering what the right age is for starting lessons. I don't want to force anything on her but if she has an aptitude for music, I want to give her every opportunity to develop it. My husband Rob doesn't share my musical passion but he does like beer so he's amenable to hanging out in Irish bars when we can get a babysitter.

Because I'm basically an introvert and have a hard time talking to strangers in person, Mudcat's been my lifeline to fellow musicians and music lovers. Next year I hope to go to the FSGW getaway and meet some of you face to face. It's been great learning more about you all on this thread.

Hey MAX, can these autobiographies be saved to a page where people could access them by searching for names? I've seen that on other web sites and it's a great way for people to get to know one another.

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: Ritchie
Date: 19 Oct 98 - 08:07 AM

Here We Go... 'the Brits are coming !'

Greetings from Ritchie and as I look out of the office window in Newcastle ,where I work ,the sun is shining brightly and the seagulls and pigeons are flying around in harmony.

The thing about the North East of England is that it has so much to offer in as much as it's so near both the country and the coast and Newcastle is a 'buzzing' city... but it's cold and getting colder...fortunately the people,who are affectionally known as 'Geordies' are generally very warm hearted with a great sense of humour.

As for myself, well I'm married to Brenda ,who I met in 1968 when we were 16 and she has had to put up with me and my love of music for all these years (gosh I wish I had met her sooner), just thought I'd add a little sarcasm in there then ,and we have two sons Patrick aged 16 & Jonathan who is 21 oh yes and a 'Westie' called 'Archie' who is 18 mnths old,but I think in dog years that makes him a teenager.

As for music I love most types, with ,as my kids never tire of telling me,lots of 'favourite records of all time'.. but the only snag is I can't play anything...I think that this is because,when I was younger,I especially liked the blues ,Willie Dixon ,Jimmy Reed,Muddy waters et al and noticed that they were all old guys.Being a young whippersnapper in no particular hurry I thought that I would wait until I was older before I would start to play....drat no one told me that these old men had been playing for years...the time has come and a crash course is needed (tell me that you're never to old to learn , please.)

and as for me ,well, If you're American, people say I look like a cross between Bob Dylan and a white Bill Cosby and if you're English I resemble a fat Micheal Barrimore (in looks only mind).

Just to add that I really like the Mudcat and let me be the first to wish everyone 'A Merry Christmas'

Love and happiness,

Ritchie

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: Bill in Alabama
Date: 19 Oct 98 - 08:00 AM

My name is Bill Foster. I am living now in Florence, Alabama, in the extreme northwestern corner of Alabama, on the beautiful Tennessee River at the Muscle Shoals, where I am a Professor of English linguistics and American Folklore at the University of North Alabama. Autumn comes slowly to north Alabama, and lingers long. Today's high will be in the low '80s, and the low tonight in the mid '60s. I play banjo, guitar, mandolin, fiddle (poorly), Autoharp, and assorted other instruments which cross my path from time to time. Banjo is my primary instrument; I played bluegrass semi-professionally for a good many years, but the clawhammer style which I learned from Uncle Arthur Kuykendall on Sand Mountain is my preferred style. I was born into a family which has lived in the southern Appalachians since the early nineteenth century, and I am a fifth-generation musician, although I can't read music. I grew up submerged in the traditional music of the southern Appalachians, listening to friends and family sing and play music on front porches and in kitchens in and around Big Ridge, Tennessee and Tunnel Hill, Georgia. When the Kingston Trio burst on the scene in 1958, much of their material was already familiar to me, although hardly recognizable. I was a field worker for the Dictionary of American Regional English as well as the Linguistic Atlas of the Gulf States, and I had ample opportunity to collect and swap songs with folk informants. For eighteen years my family traveled widely as The Foster Family String Band; we retired in 1995, and now my wife and I stay busy performing music together. I stumbled across Mudcat a couple of years ago, and I try to visit daily.

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: Pete M
Date: 19 Oct 98 - 07:19 AM

Well DW, you seem to have got the profile fairly weighed off!

I was born and raised in Dover, Kent and although I didn't realise it, had a lot of "folk" songs around during my childhood although we were not what you would call a"musical" family. "Music" at school did it's best to drive us away from any folk songs, they didn't stand a chance really with Rock starting, but if they had bother to explain the background to some of the songs it just might have helped.

Like most? Mudcatters I got involved in Folk in the sixties and the anti Vietnam war protests. Went on to discover Ewan MacColl, Ian Campbell, Hamish Imlach, Matt McGinn and the books of A L Lloyd, Roy Palmer Stan Hugill etc and became more and more interested in the background to the songs especially with regard to the union movement and the fight against capitalism.

I eventually lost touch with the folk scene sometime ago, during which period I moved to New Zealand. Then about two years ago I chanced upon the DT, downloaded the DB, emailed a correction to MacColl's "Joy of Living", got had a nice reply from Dick, and then forgot all about it. About a year ago I checked the site, found the correction hadn't been done(hint, hint), and discovered the forum. As luck would have it, one of the threads at that time was something I knew about (an esopteric bit of knowledge about sailing conditions on the East Coast of England) and I was hooked.

I don't perform in public, althogh I have been known to inflict my singing on Trainees on the Sail training Ship "Spirit of New Zealand" of which I am a volunteer crew member. I have dabbled in instrument making (Psaltry) and my eldest son plays the fiddle in a band for Scottish country dancing. One other son, wife (whom I met at the folk club in Tunbridge Wells), dog and three cats make up the set,

We live in Normandale, Lower Hutt (just outside Wellington) looking out to the Wellington Heads, and across farmland the other way. Wearther is a typical spring day - Clag down below the house, raining and wind gusting to 90 knots!

Best wishes to you all, and thanks for a wonderful site and community.

Pete M

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: Graeme
Date: 19 Oct 98 - 06:52 AM

Well, I've only seen a couple of Brits in this thread, so I guess I'll chuck my two'penn'orth

I'm in the Chiltern Hills in Buckinghamshire, England and the weather is ..... well, just weather really. We say here that if you can see the hills it's going to rain, and if you can't it already is. Although I don't know which at the moment 'cos I'm at the office and can't see out of the window.

I'm a cartographer by profession, and that gave rise to a love of folk music from the days when I was a surveyor in various wild parts of Britain and stayed in country pubs that had folk evenings.

Separated,46, two teenage daughters, balding ..........................(Arghhhhh!)

Nowadays I sing in a folk club in West Wycombe, held in a 16th century pub - with real English ale (yes - warm and flat but very strong). Sometimes I stop drinking it long enough to play or sing a few songs.

I play most of the "folky" instruments but not very well - so I floor-sing mostly, unaccompanied. I love old European ballads - and Celtic ones too (but I can't sing those too well - I always seem to get too croaky at the sad bits!)

Anyway, if you have - thanks for reading this.

Long live Mudcat and all it stands for!

Graeme

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: Jon Bartlett
Date: 19 Oct 98 - 05:43 AM

Hi, friends-I've not-met-yet, from New Westminster, BC, Canada. I'm in the middle (2.35 am) of editing the next issue of 3/4 Times, the newsletter of the Vancouver Folk Song Society, something I've been doing in one form or another for it seems like 20 years (Come All Ye, Canada Folk Bulletin, the CFMS Bulletin, 3/4 Times). I'm a singer of traditional Canadian and mostly BC songs, but I also like Australian trad and some British Isles. I'm also a loud voice in whatever shanty crew you've got going. I used to sing (with me trouble and strife Rika Ruebsaat) professionally, mostly educational work in schools, but occasional concerts, folk festivals, and the like: now I think of myself more as an archivist (of the growing collection of the VFSS, and a curmudgeonly opinionated critic of the folk music milieu. What I'm interested in these days is questions like "what would modern folk music sound like if it was more traditional (i.e. less sentimental)?" Like I said, curmudgeonly! Jon

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: DWditty
Date: 19 Oct 98 - 05:15 AM

Let's see. The "average" Mudcatter is 50ish, has grown children (and maybe some not so grown children), started out listening to 60's folk (Dylan, Baez, etc.), moved into folk-rock (Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, and, yes, Barbara - Clean Living), now focuses on traditional music (be it folk, blues, bluegrass, celtic (never seen so many who play bohdran)or whatever, and are universally wonderful people.
DW

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: anne....
Date: 19 Oct 98 - 05:08 AM

Andreas, Read the threads again, there is one more from Germany, "malena"/Daniel. Anyway Münich is my favorite city of Germany. Maybee because of the English Garden.

Love from anne

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: AndreasW
Date: 19 Oct 98 - 04:33 AM

Seems like I am the only one around here from Germany,
or more precisely Munich (home of the worlds biggest beer festival)
and one of the few Europeans around

Weather today is terrible, raining cats and dogs, temperature is about 8 degrees (Celsius), heavy wind in changing strength and from changing directions.
Greetings to the rest of the world,
Andreas

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: McMusic
Date: 19 Oct 98 - 12:40 AM

I'll make an entry for southwest Virginia--right by Tennessee. Mountains, hilly fields and spectacular fall colors. The air is cool and clean and the sky is an unmarred blue. I play the guitar and am learning (slowly) to play the fiddle. I'm 47 and with a brother ten years older than I, I've been listening to one style of music or another just about all my life, from Johnny Ray and Bill Haley to the Beatles, Byrds, Dylan, John Stewart and everything in between and alongside. My greatest love is traditional--no matter from where, but esp. Irish and Scottish. I've been writing songs since I was about 18, and am delighted to have discovered the Mudcat. Great, too, to get an idea where all these 'Catters are actually from. Hello to one and all!

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: Barbara Shaw
Date: 18 Oct 98 - 08:45 PM

Susan, didn't I see you at one of the Branford hoots at Dave Green's? I'm only about 3 miles farther. . .

DWDitty, I usually have the Branford Folk Music Society "house hoot" every other month, so the next one here will probably be in December. Try to come to it. You won't regret the effort, because the music is great, everything from folk to blues to Beatles to bluegrass to (last Friday) a medley of minstrel tunes. Ralph, you too. Allan S. was here, and did some great "dreary groaners" with the usual high body count. Dick Greenhaus shows up occasionally.

Big Mick, you may be a musician, but you are also a good writer, and never boring.

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: Big Mick
Date: 18 Oct 98 - 08:14 PM

This is one of the best threads yet, and I guess it's time for the ole Big Mick to weigh in.

Born and bred in the Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA area, I spent a great deal of my life in and around the Irish emmigrant community around the towns of Parnell and Grattan which are both named for famous Irish men.

About Michigan, it has a history which is filled with the Irish. From Beaver Island whose town is called St. James and was settled by fishermen from the Aran Islands, to Corktown which is the oldest community in Detroit and everywhere in between you will find the mark of my people. Some of the Counties in Michigan have names like Roscommon, Antrim, Wexford and Clare, all names taken from Irish Counties. Our weather is four seasons, each of them lovely. Right now we are at the peak of fall color and the views on the hills and over the valleys are an absolute testament to the existence of God. Soon the skiing will start (Cross country and downhill) along with ice fishing. The specific part of Michigan I live in is West Michigan. I reside in a large wilderness area about halfway between the cities of Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo. If you look on a map of Michigan and find a large lake called Gun Lake, that is where I live with my wife and wee Ciara, who is my youngest daughter. She is 6 years old, and one hell of a fine Irish dancer. She also sings with her old man quite a lot. I also have a 22 year old daughter named Cass, and a 20 year old daughter named Elizabeth, two female cats named Jasmine and Esmeralda. I haven't won an argument in 20 years. :-))

My love for music is lifelong. I was raised around the music of my people. Being a teenager in the sixties, I was exposed to one of the most important times in the evolution of modern music. I had loved folk music in the fifties as a small child, so my tastes in the sixties moved to Baez, Dylan, Donovan, and folk rockers like The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, and so on. I also developed a love for the various blues styles and the great artists of those genres. While I was overseas in that one place with bullets whizzing around me, music allowed me to survive mentally during very stressful times. Cat Stevens comes to mind from that time, among others. Music has been a major influence in my career as a labor organizer. Of course, I love the old greats like Pete Seeger, Woody, Cisco, Odetta, and so on, but there is a wealth of great "movement music" being created by young people which has helped me to see the world through their eyes.

I perform mostly Irish and Scottish music, and do educational performances on famous Irish people. One of my favorites in on James Connolly who died in the Rising of 1916. He organized unions in the States before he went home to Ireland and the rest is history.

I play 6 and 12 string guitar, bodhran and various whistles including a Low D Shaw. I am attempting to build a set of uillean pipes this winter(are you listening lovely alison?), and am determined to learn to play them before I die. My band is called The Conklin Ceili Band and has 5 members including me. The other instruments are mandolin, Irish bouzouki, 48 button concertina, hammered dulcimer, banjo, bass guitar and fiddle.

I consider the Mudcat to be one of the most interesting and valuable part of a life that has been pretty damned interesting. You have all touched this life in a special way and I am grateful. Hope I haven't bored you.

All the best,

Mick

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: harpgirl
Date: 18 Oct 98 - 08:08 PM

hi all,
I've just returned from a weekend at Crystal Lake,northeast of Gainesville in Florida hosted by the Florida Fiddler's. We dance and play all night and showcase all the oldtimers in Florida who play the fiddle. Willie Jones and Eddy Keeny are my favorites. I am a fiddle groupie but only play autoharp, rhythm guitar, and sing. It seems like most of the folk musicians in Florida also love to dance (squares and contras). Tallahasse where I reside, has a great music and dance community.
I have been playing autoharp and singing since my days in Ann Arbor. Born in Detroit and moved to Arkansas where I taught at UofA and my son was born. He is sixteen now and likes to sing Irish pub songs and bowl. He's cool.
I have a private practice in counseling and I teach professional CEU courses and do program development as a social worker. I am an old activist and very devoted to social work.
I spend alot of time camping all over Florida and swimming in the springs. I am happiest camped on the bank of a river (the Santa Fe is my favorite) singing and playing my buttonharps by the light of a full moon. I love to collect songs. I don't breed well in captivity!
I am one of three DoneyGals and we play around the panhandle, mostly Irish music. Anyone coming down to Florida should write me about music and camping to enjoy in Florida.
DoneyGals' next festival date is the Barberville Pioneer Settlement Fall Festival, a small, very fun festival north of Deland, Florida first weekend in November. It is always HOT here but we only have hurricanes from August to November!
I am teaching a workshop on counseling aids patients tomorrow so off-line I go. I love the Mudcat and thank you all for being such great human beings! harpgirl aka Abby

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: Animaterra
Date: 18 Oct 98 - 06:57 PM

I'm another New Englander, in beautiful southwestern NH (Keene) where it's Indian summer (75 F) after 11 days of rain. I've traveled all over this country and to the UK and France, but I'll be buried here. The autumn beauty is past its peak but the bronze and falling leaves are still lovely. First and foremost I'm a singer, accompanied by guitar and sometimes pennywhistle or recorder. I would love to fiddle as well, someday! I also direct a womens' chorus and teach public school music to the young ones. My 9 year old daughter sings like an angel and has just been asked to sing the page in Good King What's His Face this Christmas; my 13 yr old son has turned baritone and prefers not to join the family singalongs. Mudcat is truly an addiction; I admit I'm powerless and love it!